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Friday, 17 February 2017

Blair Seeks Redemption with call for Anti-Brexit Uprising

Photo credit: The Guardian

In a speech in London today to the
pro-European Union (EU) campaign Open Britain, former Labour Prime Minister,
Tony Blair, urged the British people to ‘rise up’ against leaving the EU.

Pressed
on whether he thought there should be a second referendum, he said: "All
I'm saying is a very, very simple thing, that this is the beginning of the
debate - that if a significant part of that 52% show real change of mind,
however you measure it, we should have the opportunity to reconsider this
decision.”

Blair,
who was Prime Minister between 1997 and 2007, has never really regained his
political credibility since his fateful decision to join the US led invasion of
Iraq in 2003. The dodgy dossier, spin and downright lies employed by Blair to
persuade Parliament of the necessity of the invasion, was laid bare by the
subsequent failure to find any weapons
of mass destruction in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.

He
struggled on as Prime Minister until 2007, but Iraq was the beginning of the
end of Blair’s premiership. He was damaged goods and it was only a matter of
time before the Labour Party moved to oust him.

In the
intervening years, apart from regularly defending his decision to go to war on
a false prospectus, Blair has always given me the impression that he craves to
be back in the political limelight, but Iraq has hung like a millstone around
his neck.

But it
looks as though Blair has spotted an opportunity at redeeming his reputation by
advocating that Britain should not leave the EU, despite last summer’s
referendum in which a majority of the British people voted to leave. Brexit is
of course the biggest political issue of the day, and so Blair is likely to get
a hearing in the media, unlike perhaps his thoughts on the middle-east peace
process, for example.

Blair
is right to point out that the decision made on 23 June last year was a
snapshot of the views of the British public, which doesn’t necessarily mean that
this view can’t change, especially as the implications of leaving become
clearer. We should remember too, that at 52%-48% for leave, this was hardly an
overwhelming mandate anyway. Views can change, and do, one narrow decision on
one day in 2016, cannot be set in stone forever.

The
Lib Dems political revival is being built on a pro-EU platform, with some
success, and it has surely not been lost on Blair that if they can be forgiven
their broken promises when in coalition with the Tories, then why can’t he be
absolved from past mistakes, when championing such a noble issue as the future
good of the country?

Well,
I’m not sure Blair has been forgiven, particularly by many leave voters who
blame him, with some justification, for allowing the sharp increase in
immigration from eastern Europe, when his government failed to apply a ten year
‘emergency brake’ on immigration, which was allowed under EU rules.

I
listened to a political radio phone in show on the BBC last night, just as the
news of Blair’s speech was breaking, and it was met with scorn by many of the
callers. Even some callers who want to remain in the EU, although agreeing with
Blair’s arguments, didn’t think it helpful that he personally is the messenger.
That credibility thing again.

As one
caller put it, ‘you can’t believe anything he says after Iraq.’

I’m no
fan of Blair’s, he is one of the main reasons why I stopped voting Labour and
joined the Green Party, but he may be onto something here.

At
least he is issuing a rallying call to the 16 million British people who voted
to remain in the EU, which may begin to lift the gloom that has enveloped many
remainers. Particularly since Corbyn led Labour’s abject capitulation to the
Tory agenda on Brexit.

Let us
argue the case against the government’s reckless interpretation of this great
political and cultural matter, whoever the messenger happens to be.

2 comments:

I agreed with everything you said except the last 2 paragraphs. A narrow majority of the British electorate voted for Brexit so the question becomes how is it implemented in a way that is devoid of bigotry and racism. We all need hold Theresa May to account. If the UK's opening position on negotiations is that all EU migrants up to 23rd June 2016 get automatic residency rights and we have zero percent tariffs on all EU products unless the EU impose it's own tariffs would go a long way to generate good will with those we are negotiating with. It is evident we need immigration into the UK which needs to be restricted and in a way our social infrastructure is able to cope and does not surpress wage rates. That means we need to invest in our social infrastructure and bring in new employment legislation to allow all people to live with in peace and dignity. Would it not be great if we could reallocate the £350m/week in social care and the NHS?

I saw a news headline in the i newspaper recently inferring that Blair's statement against Brexit could damage Labour in the parliamentary by-elections. Maybe that was his intention.

As an arch-manipulator, he would know that timing is important in making statements. But I have also read that Blairite Caroline Flint has spoken against the Blair statement. She is MP for Don Valley, and while Blair's statement would naturally undermine Corbyn's leadership and thus Labour's chances at the polls in the by-elections, she would naturally not want to piss off those who voted Brexit in Don Valley.